Datsunland

by Stephen Orr

A long-deserted drive-in, waiting for a rerun of the one story that might give it life; a child who discovers his identity in a photograph hidden in his parents' room ...

Stephen Orr's stories are happy to let you in, but not out. In Datsunland, his characters are outsiders peering into worlds they don't recognise, or understand: a family trying to have their son's name removed from a Great War cowards' list; a confused teenager with a gun making an ad for an evangelical ministry.

Each story is set in a place where, as Borges described, 'heaven and hell seem out of proportion'. There is no easy escape from the world's most desperate car yard, or the school with a secret that permeates all but one of the fourteen stories in Datsunland. Here is a glimpse of inner lives, love, the astonishment of being ourselves.

Genres: Short Stories, Australia

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Stephen Orr is an Australian writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. His works are set in uniquely Australian settings, including coastal towns, outback regions and the Australian suburbs. His fiction explores the dynamics of Australian families and communities.

Reviews

[Vicki Heneker]

Loved loved loved this book, by my favourite Aussie author. Having bought it and then going off to housesit in the Riverland of South Australia, where the stories are all set, it resonated so much!! I'm not a fan of short stories, but I will read this again and again, and after reading it at the start of my housesitting, after 2 months in an isolated old farmhouse, I will be now reading it again, now I am so much more familiar with the area. Looking forward to Stephen Orr's next book due out in November 2017 I believe!!! can't wait.

[Rod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories by a South Australian author. Dark. Uncompromising. Real world stuff of lost dreams and unfulfilled lives. Orr writes like he lives these lives. Very, very good. Why isn't he better known?

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The lead story in Datsunland, a new collection of short stories from Stephen Orr is a great conversation starter…

Titled ‘Dr Singh’s Despair’, it’s about a clash of cultures on an epic scale. Dr Singh is an Indian doctor who has agreed to work in a remote location in the hope of bringing his family here to Australia for a better life. He is an educated, cultured, rather formal man who is used to being treated with respect. To say that the casual mores of Coober Pedy come as a shock is a bit of an understatement.

Waiting in the airport terminal for the car that was supposed to meet him…

He sat on a loose seat, took a freshly ironed handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead. He remembered the brochures the Health Commission had sent him: Barossa Valley vineyards, fishing off white beaches on the Eyre Peninsula and marvelling at the Naracoote Caves.

Yes, some of this please, he’d written back. He was tired of living in the most densely populated place on the planet. A swarm of humans that just kept coming, filling his waiting room, his days, his nights, his dreams with broken bodies, malaria, typhoid and TB, floating through the small, hot room he worked in for sixteen hours a day.

Yes, some of this please.

But then came the next letter. We have shortages in remote locations. Very considerable financial incentives are involved.

Yes, some of that too.

So, sign here, Dr Singh, and we’ll pay your airfare, accommodation – the whole lot.

Almost. (p.5)

Well, we Aussies can just imagine it, can’t we? It’s Wake in Fright with indifferent racism instead of drunken violence. It’s Singh’s ‘failure’ to ‘see the funny side of things’ that will generate discussion. I think this would be a great story for secondary school students to unpack…

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/06/16/d...

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm normally not a big fan of the short story genre, but this collection, from my one of my favourite Australian (or for that matter, South Australian) authors caught my attention.
This is a collection of stories about men who are lost in some way and trying to right wrongs and fix personal issues. In all his books, Orr has a talent for creating a sense of place and character. Perhaps its because of the familiarity in his locations, but he evokes such a vivid picture for me in every sentence he writes. What I found astonishing about this book is how Orr can do in a story as short as 10 pages, what many authors need a whole book to do.
This is the second Orr book I've read this year and I am sorry I will have to wait a bit for the next one.